Indian Gold And Silver Imports Surge By Stunning 500% In May

India's heretofore "insatiable" appetite for precious metals will need to find a new adjective to describe it, after it surged by an absolutely unprecedented 500% in May MoM, and 222% compared to May of 2010, touching on a massive $8.96 billion in imports in the past month. Putting this number in perspective the yearly average Indian imports are about $22 billion: in one month the country will have imported about half its average quota for the year! And while inflation may have much to do with it, events like the Sensex flash crash from last night certainly are not helping matters: "The gold story is puzzling" added financial analyst A S Kirolar. "Consumers are shying away from stocks and bonds and heading to safe
assets like gold and real estate, but one cannot understand this given
the meagre 12% growth in imports of petroleum and oil products." Granted demand is not just at the retail level as ever more institutions are buying up gold: "Analysts maintained that India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India's decision to grant licenses to seven more banks to import bullion has helped push up demand. Karur Vysya Bank, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, Punjab and Sind Bank, South Indian Bank, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore were added to the list. As of the start of 2011, some 30 banks in India have been granted permission to import gold and silver. Jewellers are getting easy supplies which is also helping push up demand. Moreover, the flow of scrap is also expected to fall from a yearly average of 200 tonnes, which could again boost imports, underlining the insatiable appetite of the Indian consumer." Add ongoing Chinese demand for PMs, and one can see why calls for an imminent gold crash absent a global deflationary vortex are largely overblown.

"Even as inflation and a widening trade deficit to $15 billion in May continues to weigh on the minds of Indian investors, the demand for fresh gold has continued to grow. This is very confusing, especially when one sees it against the backdrop of a 400% rise in the value of the rupee over the last decade," said bullion analyst Anand Patnaik with a brokerage firm.

India's commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma recently released trade figures. India's imports have surged to a 4-year high at a scorching pace of 54% mainly due to rising oil prices and a surge in gold imports.

The country's imports have jumped to $40.9 billion, which has resulted in the gap between imports and exports widening to $15 billion - a 67% increase which is the largest since August 2008, prompting the government authorities to caution that India's trade deficit for 2011-12 could touch a record $145-150 billion.

Minister Sharma pointed out that exports of iron ore were down given the ban on exports imposed by the country. Imports in pearls and precious stones, however, have risen 24.6% to $ 5.20 billion, gold and silver by 222% to $ 13.5 billion and iron and steel by 13% to $ 1.80 billion, he said.

But the true cause of this endless demand is and always will be the threat of central bank hijacked purchasing power :

"People in India have accepted high inflation as a reality of life," said Rajesh Shukla of the centre for Macro Consumer Research. Noting that Indians tend to use gold as a hedge against inflation, Shukla said this would be partly responsible for the spike in imports.

He added that high imports reflected a strong demand for the yellow metal, despite the weakening of the rupee.

The Indian rupee fell to its lowest in three weeks on Monday weighed down by losses in domestic shares and the euro, with dollar demand from oil companies also adding pressure.

"Bidding from oil companies is keeping the rupee lower. All of last week, the rupee depreciated. Hiking of key interest rates has further weakened the rupee," said a forex dealer at a national bank.

And that's merely the anchor for current gold prices at over $1500 even as stocks continue to sink. Once the Fed announced Operation Twist 2 either on Wednesday, or in one or two month's time, the PM complex will explode, reaching $2000 in no time whatsoever.

The real Indian demand is likely to be even higher. All Indians know that due to strict import controls, a lot of gold is smuggled into the country by the underworld. That will be in addition to the official import figures.

I still do not understand how Bernanke can get away with saying he does not understand why the price of gold is rising when he sits on the world's largest gold reserve, and loans the gold out none the less.

Bankster pimps are all a bunch of lying whores. Benocide no different. Theoretical analysis of ZIRP to stimulate economic activity was his biggest mistake. Now, ppl are rushing to gold because the guy lost control of the house, and the deck will soon cave in. Don't blame anyone for buying gold, as everything else out of their lying mouths these days is such a blatant attempt to maintain the credit status quo. This patient has long been dead and the banksters refuse to pull the plug.

Lol it wasnt, 'maybe a little bit' or 'a percentage' - no, its 'not a chance'

Are you f-ing serious?

June 17, 2011 -

What about demand? Well, it is not rising, that is what appears to be the factual case Total silver demand was 28,500 tonnes in 2009 and it is projected to decline to 27,000 tonnes in the current year.

Contrary to certain overly optimistic “takes” on the market, we note that jewellery and flatware are actually gaining a bit (rising from 7,000 tonnes in 2009 to 7,200 tonnes in 2011), and that industrial offtake is nearly flat for a third year; hovering in and around the 12,500 tonne level.

Given the divergence I've seen over the last few weeks, I no longer think Gold will experience the prophesied big dip the deflation-first camp has called for. It seems enough people really are in it for the long term and will not be squeezed for liquidity more than there will be demand for something with real value.

Sorry man I meant to hit reply but accidentally hit junk. Ya the mint is gonna have another record month. Now people are paying a low premium for the eagles but even when the premium was high they were still selling them like crazy. Silver eagles are what I like and silver is still dirt cheap considering theres less of it above ground than gold and it does a hell of a lot more for society that putting a god damned crown on someones tooth.

Hey, don't dismiss the importance and ongoing relevance of gold in dentistry! It is still the highest-quality, most durable material available for crowns and fillings. My dentist when I was in my mid and early 20s repeatedly talked me out of replacing a large number of amalgam fillings with gold --- and now that I am having to have most or all of them replaced AGAIN, at much cost and significant risk to my remaining enamel, I wish I could go back and strangle him!

Back when glod was sub 300 and slAg was sub 5.00 I bought some Enyun 24k neckware that I have never seen since on my Western women. They are stupid asses for not making sure that it is intermixed with their costume joolry junk. I got pissed and grabbed a wad of it to put into safekeeping. The inquiries to me were for the junk that got grabbed with the good.

Women are what they are, but some are more appreciative than others of what matters in the longer run.

(The way that I ended up with the Indian bullion neckware is because it was getting traded in for cash because of the rise of POG from 255 to 280.) They are not all that smart, besides, 1543 gold will buy a heck of a lot of neccessities so that one will not go hungry with a bullion necklace.

If you ZH fans really think that the banking system is going to hit the wall you should forego another ounce for what it costs to feed your family for a month or two. You can sit at home admiring your "Eagle" while the little lady stands in line with the gangbangers to get some gombit cheese.

Storage food is still rather crazy cheap right now when priced in PM. It is far more important to have your fallback position than to have a couple of ounces that you dream of multiplying into buying your city block. That will never happen, but you can easily starve if the payments system goes down.

If things get better quickly your expenditure on ensuring your family's continuity will be an excercise on how to use freeze dried food in the menu

If it goes the other way and interbank payments seize, the three months of food that your family has will be worth a lot more than the ounce of gold.

Just my 2 cents.

Tyler picked up on one of my posts one time when I called attention to the deals that COSTCO has on storage food. I still find that they are the cheapest when I look on behalf of other people that ask me on what to do to prepare. Of course you can prepare with foods that cost a lot less than stuffs that are expected to last 15-30 years.

For the price of an ounce of gold one can have nine months worth of food for one person; some is good, and some will be blah, but it will get you through. It is better than sending the little lady to the breadline to get some goomint cheese in competition with the local gangbangers that probably will not respect the place in line of your lady.

Likely it will not come to that. If there is a breakdown in the payments system all bets are off.

42$ per ounce right now on EvilBay. Waddya think we'll be lookin at by Easter 2012 kids? Its all here for everyone to see. Physical Silver is going to retract that $50 target and leave it in the dust. I was hoping to see low 30'S again for you guys to have a shot of at least one monsterbox...still..low 40's might be the best we'll see for a long time. Gold Double Eagles gonna be smokin past $2500 like it was a Yugo with flat tires. India is PM! They breathe the stuff. They did this in the late 70's/early 80's too. Go check it out. Anyone not paying attention to what Indian citizens are doing when dealing with PM is foolish. They also can dump a TON of metal out there super fast too..so watch when they do..you'll know the top in PM just happend...years from now.

The World Gold Council ranks Vietnam as among 5 countries with the largest gold hoarding in the world, second after India. Vietnam’s gold takes up 23-29.5% of the world’s total gold during the past 5 years.

Vietnam is among the top 20 countries that buy the most gold jewelries (20 tons per year). Such a high consumption rate has been maintained for the past many years, reported the GFMS gold company during the conference.

When this is over..and I think soon..2-3 months more....we will find out all the real gold has been moved to India..China..Russia....other countries...and the US will find out they are buying and selling paper...just paper...thinking they have the real stuff...now will we care..that is the question...are we just a day trade country...or do we even know

When the WTO/IMF/WB/etc at the stroke of pen make governments outlaw gold/silver, it will only apply to the guy on the street and the non-insiders while the insiders will be allowed to keep all their gold/silver.

We live in a world of the select few people that have everything and all the other people that have nothing.

The Western world is getting a taste of what the British experienced in the late 1800s. The Brits would purchase Indian and Chinese products with gold sterling and expected to get the gold sterling back as these countries purchased British made products. It never happened. Mercantilists will never buy back anything voluntarily. The only product that would produce revenue from the mercantilists was opium.

The Western countries need to throw up trade barriers and then carefully regulate trade with the mercantilists or they will disappear from history.

I think people are shying away from the miners as they feel a stock market crash is very close. Considering all the problems in Europe and QE2 ending soon. Miner stocks will follow an overall market dip as will physical gold and silver (although not as much for gold). Then watch out because it will be no dead cat bounce. Boooya.......! I'm holding tight on the miners stock but buying physical. Even if the physical drops with the market to cheaper prices the question is.....will you get your hands on it? That is not a risk I want to take and those who buy physical know this. Remember how long it took to get silver when it was trading at $50 oz.? Yea....X 1,000!

I respect these 2 greatly (deity-like in brains, brawn, and perhaps beneath the sheets virility!), however if you listen carefully, they still have some semblance of believing there is a market. It might of been JS that said, 'I've been in the market forever, and no matter the manipulation, it always corrects.'

Problem is... there is no market.

This is centrally planned make believe, and any similarity to a 'market' is simply Rembrandt style chart art.

Different country, different economic system. Same physical location.

So, the PM miner stock beat down by the gov proxies encourages M&A. Another proxy picks them up, and subsidizes the controllers. Clandestine underhanded nationalization bastardz! (got tired of bitchez)

So, the paper PM prices do the hokey-pokey and the the bleaters still own paper.

So, the physical separates from the paper and...

a. the paper price goes up and the physical goes down (phys made illegal to trade, or the taxes for physical become confiscatory vs paper)

b. the paper price goes down and the phys goes up or remains constant (but the physc liquidity shuts down ie real estate)

c. US gov temporarily and attractively revalues gold and concurrently installs a gold standard, then converts Fort Johnny Knox tungsten au to a 'secure citizen' reserve, mandates you must place your phys for secure storage for national security purposes in approved facilities, disallows audit, gets physical to flood market, buys it up with paper, shuts the paper currency down, and installs the amero.